A world of growing things

explored a world of growing things. We have wandered through the Stone Age. Mostly, we’ve been finding the Secret Stories of Slindon where, as it turns out, mermaid treasure has been hidden and where in the distant future a faulty spacenav crashlands an alien invasion force into the village. The school grounds gave us a lot of inspiration: they informed riddles and exercises in imagery. They offered settings for stories and ideas for characters.

This post will mostly be filled now with images and words from the artists and storytellers of Slindon

life in Stone Age Slindon

First set: "when you don't know what to say, look out of the window!"

Slindon aurochs

1. As warm as as summer’s day,As blue as the bluest sky,As sticky as a melting sweet, As thin as a twig,As clear as water,As cold as the coldest winter’s day.2. They met an old man as ugly as a rotting tree stump and boring as a fence but as sad as a lonely soldier standing in a field3. His voice was as comforting as soft flower petals but his smile was a frozen ice spike sending chills down my spine4. As sad a lonely flowerAs sad as a child’s dying heart and soulAs vague as a smile from a cold, cold heart As sad a child’s grief

5. As cold as a winter storm,As hot as a summer’s day,As sharp as a tiger’s tooth,As painful as a broken heart

we used natural and man-made objects to inspire us

Second set: riddles: we looked at plants and animals in or visiting the school garden. This gave us riddles and a collective poem but also just good sets of words!

Green weeds float on dark, wind-rippled
water, where the knee-deep pond hides frogs and frogspawn and possibly the
jaw-snapping, bone-breaking last crocodile in Slindon

a world of growing things..

Recipe for a wildlife gardenTake a tophat full of flowersAnd a sheet of the greenest green grass.You might want some saplings,20 saplings, any flavour, to your taste.

Throw in a handful of flies,A sting of wasps,A carpet of ants,A rustle of leaves andAn ogre’s ear of spiders.

Shake out a summer wind andA breeze full of butterflies,A shower of blossom,A storm of bees,A pillow of moths,A singing gust of robins andA flight of birds

You will need a tornado of green leaves andA tsunami of last year’s compost.

You will need a pond withA welly-full of frogspawn and aTrolley of pond-weed,A bucket of ducks andA beard of worms andA bag of slow-wormsStir it all up with a handful of lifeAnd rain,And sunshine.And when the houseful of lumpy, bumpy hedgehogs arrive,Serve your garden with wheelbarrows and goats,And a chair of twisted tree trunks to rest in,And enjoy that garden growing around you.

many thanks to all the artists, storymakers and storytellers of Slindon!